Herbs or Antibiotics for Chronic Lyme Disease?

By the time my Lyme Disease and several other co-infections were identified, I had been sick for over twenty years. I was living with the usual chronic fatigue/fibromyalgia diagnosis many lyme sufferers are given. Once diagnosed with lyme in August, 2012, I got online and began frequenting the lyme disease forums. I had always relied more on the experience of a fellow sufferer than on groups or individuals promoting a drug or particular supplement. There on the forums, I found a general consensus that antibiotics seemed to help with acute (i.e., newly acquired) infections. For example, it was acknowledged that someone with an adverse reaction to recent tic bite (e.g., bulls eye rash or flu like symptoms) might find a short course of antibiotics sufficient to stop the lyme from taking hold. However, chronic lyme seemed to be another story altogether. This article focuses on two of the approaches to longstanding lyme disease and co-infections.

Once a person has been infected with lyme disease and its co-infections for an extended period of time, the body starts to become very nutrient-depleted from fighting these relentless pathogens. Organs, metabolic pathways and hormonal patterns responsible for homeostasis (proper body regulation) and waste elimination become compromised in their functioning, resulting in the body becoming increasingly toxic. I could see on the forums that some individuals with chronic lyme were improving on antibiotics, but most of them seemed to relapse once the antibiotics were stopped. Seeing this emerging pattern, some of those on antibiotics began adding herbs and other therapies to complement their antibiotic treatments. I wondered, if the antibiotics were working so well, then why add in anything else? I discovered that a significant number of those on antibiotics had been taking them for years, some indefinitely.

Since I hadn’t had very good success with the medical system, I was already skeptical of drug therapy of any kind. And for the sake of honest disclosure, this continues to be my bias. So I began my research into solutions that would get me out of bed and functioning again, and like many others, I have never stopped…

7 Reasons why antibiotics are not the best choice

1. Borrelia’s corkscrew shape can bore deep into tissuesBorrelia, the stealthy microbe that causes Lyme disease, has a corkscrew shape that allows it to bore deep into tissues and cartilage (including the brain and nervous system), safely out of reach of most antibiotics.

When necessary, Borrelia can give up its corkscrew shape and convert to a form that is able to live inside cells (“intracellular”) where again, antibiotics have less reach.

2. Borrelia can form dormant cystsBorrelia, along with other stealth microbes, can form dormant cysts that are completely resistant to antibiotics; the harder you hit it, the more resistant it becomes.

3. Microbial coinfections complicate recoveryBorrelia is usually accompanied and aided by co-infections of other stealth microbes that also live inside cells.

4. Stealth microbes become resistant to antibioticsAntibiotic resistance occurs at a high rate with these types of microbes. An antibiotic is one single chemical substance. Bacteria, such as Borrelia (and also the co-infections), respond slowly to antibiotics and have more time to develop resistance to the antibiotic.

In other words, the longer they can hang on, the more likely they can eventually become completely resistant and the antibiotic becomes completely ineffective. Using multiple antibiotics at once seems to accelerate this process and alternating antibiotics doesn’t seem to help. Resistant bacteria become even harder to get rid of.

5. Antibiotics suppress the immune systemAntibiotics destroy the normal flora (friendly bacteria) in the gut and skin, causing bacterial imbalance and a host of other symptoms in the body. Most importantly, use of antibiotics suppresses immune function, which may present the greatest hurdle to recovery—you cannot get well without optimal immune function.

6. Borrelia can hide inside biofilmsBorrelia can exist in biofilms, which is a protected colony of microbes that form on a surface (such as plaque on your teeth), but what role this plays in Lyme disease is controversial. The symptom profile of Lyme disease suggests that it is not a biofilm disease and that biofilms are not a big factor in overcoming Lyme.

7. People are still searching for a solutionPossibly the most compelling suggestion that antibiotic therapy has significant limitations is this: if antibiotics really worked, people would not be searching for other solutions. But people are still scouring the Internet… by the thousands everyday.

Sir Alexander Fleming discovered and managed to isolate penicillin in 1928, and was jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in medicine in 1945. In his 1945 Nobel Prize acceptance speech, Fleming warned the world of the dangers of misusing antibiotics. He had noted bacteria in his lab becoming resistant to penicillin, just a few years after its discovery. After decades of antibiotic misuse, we find ourselves today facing bacteria which have become resistant to most, if not all antibiotics. His speech can be found here.

I do feel that antibiotics have their place with saving lives. Without a doubt, I would have died twice had I not relied on antibiotics administered for life-threatening infections. Once, for a staph infection following surgery and once during lyme treatment, when I developed a very serious kidney infection. However, in the case of chronic lyme treatment, the evidence to suggest that antibiotics are effective and beneficial is highly debatable.

Herbs will always be my first choice when dealing with illness. However, there are also some antibiotic herbs that I have stopped using because their long term use will also kill good gut flora in addition to pathogens. For example: oregano oil, goldenseal, high doses of garlic and grapefruit seed extract. I used many of these for years trying to control parasites, when I finally realized this was the wrong approach. They have their place, but must be used wisely.

Comments

I found your blog today and I just want to tell you that I am reading this with tears streaming down my face. Your experience is so similar to my own. I have come to the point where I know it is time to begin again treating my own decades old Lyme and co-infections; ignoring it and hoping it would go away has not worked. I’ve already done pulsing doses of antibiotics and thanks to the MTHFR mutation and trying to treat while working full time, the toxic build up was killing me. I had to stop treating. I am not getting sicker and have to make the decision between IV antibiotics and herbals. I decided to go with herbals. I prayed for some kind of guidance and confirmation and today I found your blog.

Thank you so much for the time you have spent so clearly detailing your journey. Not a small feat considering how bad you must have been feeling so much of the time. Bless you. Bless You. BLESS YOU!

Thanks so much for the encouragement that I am indeed on the right path. I have been using herbs and homeopathy for decades, and I consider that my acupuncturist IS my primary care practitioner.

I chose to go the herbal route for all the reasons you mentioned, as I came to the same conclusion you did. The information on why TO take antibiotics simply did not add up when you learn about Lyme and what those sneaky spirochetes can get up to!

When my doctor, who is also fighting Lyme via antibiotics, told me I could be spending anywhere from 6 months to 20 years or more on high powered antibiotics, both oral and IV, with no guarantee of ever being cured, I wondered why in the world it was even a question. I told him my plans. He was somewhat supportive, but basically said, “I’ll be here with the antibiotics when your alternative method fails.”

Not likely. I am getting better.

In the eleven months since diagnosis, I have made a lot of progress and gone through some very dark days. I have seen a large number of my symptoms diminish or leave altogether, and while I am not done yet, my practitioner said I turned the corner somewhere around New Year.

Still, it is a challenge to keep swimming upstream when so many “info” sources seem to shove the idea of Lyme being a forever disease down our throats. Some days, I think if I read the word “incurable” in connection with Lyme one more time, I will explode!

Tonight I just needed a little perspective re-centering. Thank you for reminding me of why I chose to go alternative and giving encouragement that healing is indeed possible.

Herloommaters- Thanks for your comment. Yes Lyme can be healed! I am so happy to hear that you are getting better! Just keep healing and show others that Lyme Disease is curable. That’s all we have to do so others can see that the current medical offerings of drugs and ABX are not the answer.